How was your ride today?

A bike is a bike and a ride is a ride. We don’t discriminate here.

I owe a lot to the ubike. It was my gateway drug to the world of cycling.

Thanks for your kind words, @KHHville

I considered blogging about my rides awhile ago, but really just don’t have the time to do it. I’m somewhat of a perfectionist and if each blog doesn’t live up to my own standards, it’ll take days to edit and eventually post.

Between riding/gf/work, I need some time to wind down when I’m in front of the PC at home. I do get in some vlogs once in awhile on my Youtube channel, but that is not a weekly (or even monthly) occurrence.

Most of my rides are on a social media platform for endurance sports called, Strava. A lot of my pictures of my riding routes are screen shots from there.

However, it’s not out of the question. I can’t imagine there’s too too many English cycling bloggers in Taipei or even Taiwan. So, I think there’s an audience.

The weekend from hell. I never hated cycling more than I did this past weekend.

I only have a few weeks left until the big Hualien --> Wuling challenge, so I’m trying to get as much training as I can.

Saturday we went for a quick coffee ride up to Wu Zhi Shan and a climb in which my PR is 45 minutes, I ended up only 4 minutes slower, but it really felt like I was grinding away for over an hour.

Sunday, was a big big biiiig group ride with Columbus Giant over towards the west coast and the destination was the Transasia Bakery. Luckily, we saw some cool ocean winds on the coast and then mountain breeze towards the end of the ride. Everything in between that was torture.

Nonetheless, good to get out before that storm comes in tomorrow evening.

I think that, at least in June, I’ve never gotten this wet while commuting by bicycle. Never.

Fun note: I recently got a cheap bike, the new Escape 3 from Giant, because I wanted to ride something that I won’t mind leaving parked at the station for the whole day, and that can be more suited to carry heavy loads while shopping. It has been working amazing so far, but yesterday on my way back home something interesting happened. It was pouring cats and dogs and the roads was covered in water. I felt the wheel slipping away and I slowed down and stopped by the side of the road for a moment. After inspection, there was a thick gap on the concrete, caused by roadworks that cut through the road for some next-day fixing. The gap was wide enough to fit the tyres of my Defy, but the fatter wheels of the Escape easily climbed around it. I wonder what would have happened if I was on the Defy and my front wheel jammed inside that gap in the middle of a busy crosseroad at night.

I’ve been avoiding the rain, I’m a mid/late afternoon cyclist. Today’s weather was perfect. Warm with a cool breeze, blue skies, and some clouds. Went out around 4 and came back just as the sun was going down. I even had a nice chat with a local that spoke pretty decent English.

At any rate, I usually hit the Jiangzicui Riverside Park. It stretches a decent length, even intersecting with “other” parks. Somewhere therein are a couple dip and pull-up bars. And there’s some really nice views along the way.

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I had a mid night u bike ride around daan park. I had no idea you couldn’t actually ride inside the park. I tried explore around but there isn’t much to do. I ended up going to eat a late night meal at tostaria.

I dropped 60 NT worth of pineapple on the road 2 minutes after buying it. Bad ride.

I’m usually not on that side of the river, but on the opposite side towards Xindian, it’s pretty spectacular when you’re heading south and can see the clouds covering the Wulai mountains.

I’ve actually been trying to reach that side of the river through bike paths, last ride I found out that the paths on eastern side of the park I went to were completely closed off. Should I just loop around through the main roads or is there another route I’m missing?

Some cool stories on here, no doubt you have all read them. But they interested me. Posted on Michael Turton blog spots

Found my answer today and learned a lot more things. The bike park I frequent is an elaborate spider nest of dozens of other bike parks all (poorly) weaved together. That’s why I couldn’t find the link from my side to across the river, the pedestrian access points are below most of the bridges that cross it.

You need some really keen eyes to see a sign that says “Yonghe Bridge” and understand it’s labeled because you can access it. I actually passed it at first. On the way back from that route, I took another sign that was labeled “Yonghe Bridge” that ended up being a completely different bridge.

Alright, so here’s my (early) opinions to the side I frequent (New Taipei) as compared to the eastern side (Taipei City). Personally I think the former is much more open and less crowded. There’s not as many confusing twists and turns, and still plenty scenic viewing areas as well as exercise equipment throughout.

However, the other side has its advantages. I noticed more exercise equipment, and a little more variety. The scenic areas were a little more diverse as well. And most importantly it had more vending machines throughout.

That said, I did find it (Taipei City areas) to be very confusing since most of the paths I took would break off into multiple sections whereas I was accustomed to one big loop. And it was far more congested. [Oh, on an aside there is a very convenient bike shop right across the bridge in Taipei City right as you exit. I could clearly see many miscellaneous parts, and some cold drinks. And yes, I know some of the pedestrian bridges can be accessed from the road if you know what you’re looking for. I found that out much later]

Next time I might just go up the bridge for a break and enjoy the view, then continue back down to my area. This picture doesn’t do it justice, I was battling the incoming rain.

These bike paths are nice. I agree that the ones in the southern side of the river are more messy, but also less congested. They used to be dirtier too, plus as you said, there are like “segments” or “parks” or whatever joined, and in one or two places the access from one to another is not totally obvious.

Taipei has very nice infrastructures for cyclists. The downside is that occasional riders and runners and walkers in general do not respect the rules nor seem to have common sense… it’s a real pity.

I wish you were a little specific with some common problems, I couldn’t find many English rules regarding bicycles and the parks. I’m probably breaking more than one without knowing. Here’s my list of (albeit petty) complaints.

  1. Scooters riding in the pedestrian pathways.
    Why? The main roads are faster, I think it’s just rude and unnecessary. I can’t read most Chinese but even I can understand a big picture that shows a man with a small child and another with a bicycle, followed by a big scooter sign with a red X through it.

  2. Nearly crashing into waves of old people that aren’t situationally aware.
    This is mostly my fault, I can’t speak Chinese so I’m not sure how to say, “Excuse me, can I come through?” But I’m really not accustomed to a modern civilization that is unable to check a loud rattling noise behind them. I now understand why many drivers do the obnoxious honking thing.

  3. Disappearing lanes.
    I recall one in particular that splits into two directions, one for bikes, one for foot traffic (unless you’re an old person, then everywhere is for foot traffic). However, coming back the bike path is very well hidden. I usually end up taking the area for foot traffic.

There is no “Yonghe Bridge.” There’s Yongfu Bridge and Fuhe Bridge, both of which connect Gongguan to Yonghe. Yongfu (with the red arches) is more bike-friendly with a wide boardwalk for bikes and pedestrians.

Also, referring to the riverside as east side and west side is meaningless, as most rivers meander. What is east may become south after a river makes a few turns. The locals designate the riversides as right bank and left bank as you face downstream, so the Yonghe side of the river would be the left bank and the Gongguan side would be the right bank.

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I was also on the path this weekend for a recovery ride and I remember how much I did not like it. I agree with you guys in saying it’s an awesome network and great for a leisure spin, but I felt like I could’ve crashed at any moment once I got to the Muzha → Gong Guan → Da Dao Cheng areas. Good thing I was not in any hurry that day.

I probably haven’t done a ride like this in over a year, but I noticed that there’s lots and lots of areas they are seeing issues and improving. The section from Muzha to the Gong Guan with the narrow yellow railing path will have a parallel path right next to it. This is big because when I used to do fast river spins, I would always be scared of crashing into people around that area.

Sometimes they aren’t and sometimes the road makes you go in a huge roundabout circle whereas the bike/ped path is quicker despite not being able to go too fast. Sometimes you see blue trucks, but those are trying to get to their construction areas, but scooters is always people trying to dodge traffic.

You can say things like Xiǎoxīn hòumiàn/小心後面/Watch out behind or Bù hǎoyìsi/不好意思/sorry. I normally go with the first and say it in a relaxed tone, you don’t want to be an ass or startle them because like you said, they’re oblivious to their surrounds, but the path sometimes doesn’t allow too much room.

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Nothing that will surprise you (I hope). The rules are sometimes written, sometimes not:

  1. Taiwan was never under the Brits, so you have to ride or drive by your lane, which is the right hand one.
  2. If there’s a symbol that looks like a bicycle and another that resembles a person, you should know where to have your walk, run or ride
  3. As extension on #1, don’t occupy both lanes when in a group ride
  4. Don’t stop in the fucking lane, especially in a bend or a place with poor visibility
  5. If you are going to change direction or just cross lanes (U turn or not), please check both ways and make sure that you’re not going to cut anybody’s way
  6. be aware of what you have ahead and behind too
  7. Try to ride / wander straight, avoid random, unpredictable movements that can provoke accidents
  8. If you are with your kids, control them!

As you see, none of these things should be explained, but people here (and also in my country) seem oblivious to these rules).

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And you could have crashed any time for sure. Even if people are doing idiotic movements, we riders also need to be conscious of where we are riding. I used to say, about drivers I yell at, “one day we will have an accident and it won’t be my fault, but that won’t make any difference”.

This is true. I’d rather be on the road doing 25-30kph and having vehicles pass me while I’m hugging the sidewalk than navigating people on the riverside at the same speed.

The road, you’re more likely to predict a car making sudden movements due to the movement of traffic, but on the river paths, there’s zero indication.

Sidenote: Did Stripe have anything on sale while you were there? I got notice via their FB that they are closing down and putting everything on sale, but I haven’t seen much advertisement.

What? no, I didn’t see anything or at least I don’t remember.

Talking to the young guy about the tyres, he recognized me that not so many people buy them there… the older guy (who I thought was the laoban) told me that they had to work more days this month (no Tuesday break anymore), and after spending there like an hour or more checking tyres and swapping mine, I was thinking that they don’t seem to have many customers (I didn’t see any that hour there).

So bad they have to close.

I wanted to post this in Christmas (which is when I recorded it), but better later than never. Dunno how to fix the color (probably just WB and Brightness and contrast) of the videos taken with GoPro, they always seem off when uploading to Youtube. In this case I just used the automatic fixes:

It’s a pity that I ran out of memory before the fun (off road) started for real…

https://www.strava.com/activities/813919373

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0OhXLc9BGA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LitXRiHuXA

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This morning I found a guy with a very expensive mountain bike (looked like a carbon frame Giant) who was using the road as a “ramp” to jump into the dry rice field (1m below road level, more or less), ride around a bit, climb back on the road, then rinse and repeat.

It wasthe perfect mix of “awesome” and “wtf are you doing”.